(no subject)

Why doesn't anyone ever talk about Tennyson's "Isabel"?* It's on the facing page to "Mariana" in all the editions (I assume since the first collection); it's all about "the clear-pointed flame of chastity" and "the intuitive decision of a bright/ and thorough-edged intellect to art/ Error from crime," with the rather telling analogy of absorbing "the vexed eddies of its wayward brother;" the whole thing generally screams "reader, she married him" re: the end of Measure for Measure. But the only comment I find says nothing except that it probably is an homage to the poet's mother (and, in context, that's a little disturbing, I think.)

*Because it's less compelling than "Mariana", either version, I know.